MIWD knew of imminent shortage as early as February
As early as February of this year, Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) already knew of imminent water shortage for its thousands of consumers. However, the problem was only made public when it implemented the water rationing late last March.
MIWD's production report for February 2007, indicated that in their Sta. Monica pumping station, there is already a slightly low production efficiency. The volume of water produced is only 37,330 cubic meters during the station's 643 operating hours.
For the Sto. Niño pumping station, the report said that there is an "intermittent operation due to low water demand. Only 3,620 cubic meters of water was produced for 98.24 actual operating hours of the pumping station.
The report also said that in San Jose production wells, there is a normal operation except for pumping station number 1 which has low production efficiency. The volume of water produced in the San Jose production wells was 125,629 cubic meters for their 1,931 actual operating hours. The same report did not identify where the MIWD's pumping station number 1 is located.
The February 2007 water production report was forwarded to MIWD's Interim Manager Edwin Reyes.
The problem on water shortage, however, was only made known to the public when MIWD announced that it will implement water rationing in the later part of March.
MIWD have two sources of water, the ground water sources and water treatment plants. The water district has nine water treatment plants and nine water pumping stations, mostly located in towns outside Iloilo City.
As to date, the water district has yet to give update on the status of water supply in the city as well as other towns in Iloilo that depends on their supply. Recently, the city government requested the Department of Agriculture to conduct cloud seeding operation to help address the water problem.